LEROY
JENKINS (1932–2007) invented his own musical language. His was an extraordinary bonding
of a variety of sounds associated with the black music tradition, while simultaneously
bridging with European styles. His intermeshing of jazz and classical influences
leaves critics constantly wondering at his musical identity: however, all agree
that "Jenkins is a master who cuts across all categories." (The
San Francisco Chronicle) "He is as quick as a cat, emotional as an
actor, and as precise as a mathematician." (St. Louis Post Dispatch) "No violinist in the field can touch Leroy Jenkins." (The Village
Voice)
Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1932, Jenkins was already playing violin at the
age of 8 at his local Ebenezeer Baptist Church. The flavor of spirituals still
remains in his music. He studied music in high school and then attended Florida
A&M University where he studied with Bruce Hayden and completed his B.S.
in music. For the next ten years Jenkins remained in the South teaching music.
Jenkins returned to Chicago in 1965 and was drawn into the wellspring of Chicago's
creative music activities. Almost immediately, he joined the Association for
the Advancement of Creative Music (AACM). Jenkins recalls that this union marked
the first time that as a violin player he was truly welcomed into creative music
performances. During this time he played and recorded with Muhal Richard Abrams,
Leo Smith and Anthony Braxton. In 1969, Jenkins left for Paris with Braxton
and Smith. With the addition of drummer Steve McCall, they formed the Creative
Construction Company. Their 1970 performance in New York, joined by Richard
Davis on bass and Abrams on piano, gave New York the first taste of the new
music that Chicago musicians were creating. Jenkins continued to work with the
finest creative musicians .... Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, Alice Coltrane, Mtume,
Cal Massey, to name a few. But it was the work of the collective Revolutionary
Ensemble (co-founded with bassist Sirone and drummer Jerome Cooper) that gained
Jenkins prominence as the most significant violinist of the modern era.
After a decade of touring with his own groups and solo worldwide, Jenkins received
a number of major commissions and is particularly in demand for experimental
and theater-based work. Mother of Three Sons, a dance opera collaboration
with Bill T. Jones, premiered in Germany and in 1992 was presented in New York
by the New York City Opera and by the Houston Grand Opera. Prestigious commissioning
programs such as The Rockefeller Foundation and the Readers Digest Program,
along with Meet the Composer and National Endowment funding have awarded him
grants to create several new works currently in various stages. Fresh Faust
(a jazz rap opera) received its first workshop in Boston and was picked up by
New York's Public Theater for workshop. Other recent works are: The Negro
Burial Ground, presented by the Kitchen in New York and Willie Horton which
premiered in various venues in Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York.
Previous commissions have come from a wide range of institutions, such as the
Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Nickelsdorf Festival
in Austria, and Lincoln Center Out of Doors (for solo violin and solo dancer).
The Albany Symphony and the Kronos Quartet have performed his works, and his
compositions were included in the American Composers Series presented by the
Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Jenkins has also been sought after as a popular
composer/musician-in-residence, in such universities as Oberlin, Brown, Williams,
the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois and Carnegie Mellon Institute.
He has been honored and recognized by five NEA grants, as well as winning grants
from New York Foundation for the Arts, the Creative Arts Program, and Harvestworks
Artist-in-Residence Program. He was awarded a "Bessie" in 1992 for Mother of Three Sons.
A recent review in String Magazine called Jenkins ".... not only
the father of extended improvisational string music, but also one of the guiding
lights of creative music as a whole .... Jenkins has not only been a musical
force but a moral oneguiding his peers in all areas of their musical lives."
DISCOGRAPHY
AACM Site: http://aacmchicago.org/members/Leroy.html